Cyprus has taken its first step into commercial battery energy storage, with a 5 MWh system connected to the island’s electricity grid and entering commercial operation in July.
The project, developed by electricity supplier Petrolina Electric, marks the first participation of a utility battery system in Cyprus’s electricity market and could provide a practical blueprint for the wider deployment of storage on the island.
Known as the ‘Pavlina Memorial Energy Park’, the hybrid facility combines 1.8 MW of photovoltaic generation with a 5 MWh battery. The battery is installed behind the meter, allowing electricity generated by the solar plant to be stored and subsequently used when it is most valuable.
The project has also been developed and is operating without government subsidies.
The Pavlina Memorial Energy Park comes at a time when Cyprus is facing a growing mismatch between the rapid expansion of solar power and the ability of the electricity system to absorb it. From January to May this year, Cyprus needed to curtail 162 GWh of renewable energy, equivalent to over 65% of potential solar generation.
Dr Andreas Prokopiou, founder of CyprusGrid, a platform specializing in analysis of the Cypriot electricity market, estimates that the battery could return approximately 1.3–1.6 GWh of electricity to the grid each year that would otherwise be curtailed. His estimate assumes one charge-discharge cycle per day and a typical round-trip efficiency of 85 to 90%.
With average annual household electricity consumption in Cyprus estimated at approximately 6,000 to 9,000 kWh, Prokopiou says the amount of electricity recovered would be equivalent to the annual consumption of roughly 150 to 270 households.
“Those numbers are not large enough to alter Cyprus’s overall energy balance,” Prokopiou told ESS News. “[However], they demonstrate something far more important: that the business and technical model behind the commercial operation of battery storage systems in Cyprus can work.”
Cyprus’ energy storage market development has been extremely slow. The government introduced its first-ever energy storage subsidy scheme at the beginning of 2025, offering subsidies for the purchase and installation of energy storage units behind the meter and alongside existing solar PV, wind and biomass power plants.
The scheme had a competitive character and would run until 2027, during which time the government was supposed to publish several open calls for bids. However, the first call for bids in February 2025 was unsuccessful, and to date, the government hasn’t reported whether investors engaged with it or not.
Cypriot energy market investors have told ESS News separately that several policy details made Cyprus’ storage subsidy scheme in 2025 unattractive and that the scheme is now considered dead.
On the contrary, investors have been applying for licenses allowing them to build and operate unsubsidized battery projects, tied to existing renewable energy storage facilities. Interest in such projects is strong, but the regulatory process is slow, delaying the issuance of grid-connection terms.
The Pavlina Memorial Energy Park is, on the other hand, a project that was able to face the regulatory bottleneck and become operational. Investors agreed it can serve as a blueprint for similar projects, allowing all stakeholders taking part in the regulatory process to derive useful lessons. Furthermore, as reported across countries and agencies during the surge of energy storage installations, meaningful energy storage capacity is critical for the country’s green energy transition and energy market competitiveness.
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